OH DEAR

[wadey]

The injury situation is very bad I'm afraid," said Hodgson. "It's as bad as I've ever experienced in football. We have six of our First Team players out injured and one who hasn't yet returned from the African Cup of Nations.

"To lose seven players from the Team that finished seventh last year is always going to take a lot of dealing with but fortunately we have two players who have come in on loan in Nicky Shorey and Stefano Okaka which is very useful for me to plug gaps.

"I'm disappointed that Simon Davies, who I was hoping would recover for the game on Wednesday, and Zoltan Gera, who injured himself in training on Tuesday morning, will not be available. To lose a further two in our current situation it seems that the real good fortune we had in terms of injuries last season we're repaying for this season."

The loan deals to bring in Okaka and Shorey for the second half of the season were announced on Monday afternoon and Hodgson is hoping both players will make an impact at the Cottage, starting with Wednesday night's clash against Portsmouth.

"Both of them will play tomorrow," revealed Hodgson. "He's [Okaka] a great talent and has potential because he's an Italian U21 international. He hasn't played that many games for the Roma team but he has played some important matches for them and made a very important contribution as a substitute.

"He's a strong player and has an eye for goal. He's a determined type of goalscorer and we hope in our current situation, with Andy Johnson out for a further considerable time, he will help us up front to score some goals.

"We've been struggling at left back since Paul Konchesky got injured because we've not had that player that can cover on the left hand side. We've not had a natural left footer and we've tried to play right backs there and they've struggled.

[White Noise]

Blimey - we are going to struggle to get a bench together.

[OldBrownShoe]

Time to bring in some of the younger players. If they are out on loan then bring them back! Arsenal or Manure don't hesitate to bring young players in, it works for them why not us?

[Fernhurst]

It's getting outrageous........... has Ethu gone missing??..... what part of the body is Johnson nursing????? didn't know about Gera...... looking forward to seeing our the Italian lad, but O'Neill is a good judge ( got rid of Davis) so I expect Shorey to be a bit of a disappointment.

[Fernhurst]

Hear hear OBS .......... Jack Wiltshire would have been a good loan capture.

[NickW]

It's getting outrageous........... has Ethu gone missing??..... what part of the body is Johnson nursing????? didn't know about Gera...... looking forward to seeing our the Italian lad, but O'Neill is a good judge ( got rid of Davis) so I expect Shorey to be a bit of a disappointment.

O'Neill also spent a fair bit of cash on Zat Knight, and gave us Aaron Hughes for £1m, so he isn't necessarily that good a judge!

Shorey could just have had a bad time up there, or never really settled. As a Londoner, he might relish the opportunity to return to the capital. Whilst I'm not expecting Shorey to be like Roberto Carlos in his pomp, I do expect him to perform better than Kelly, Kallio and Baird have performed at LB. Even if he doesn't play as well as Konchesky did, he'll still be a very decent squad player to have.

[Brede Butter Pudding]

Go on some Forest messageboards and look at their reaction to Shorey leaving. Yes O'neil is a good manager but I think Shorey had a bad time up there. He is solid and should be an adequate replcement for Konch. I also believe that Kelly, although a bit dodge, is fine at RB.